


Core meltdown

by Metalsappho



Series: Metall/u/rgy [17]
Category: Metall/u/rgy
Genre: Angst, F/F, Friendship fallout, Fucking hell Thorium, Pregnancy drama, Robotics, Shit Hits The Fan, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-24 03:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6140258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Metalsappho/pseuds/Metalsappho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uranium and Thorium are brilliant engineering students, but as they complete their first ever gynomorphic robot, Thorium gets tangled in a situation where her programming skills will not help her.</p><p>(Place in the timeline: 20 to 19 years ago)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Core meltdown

Thorium was deeply absorbed in her work. The quietness of the workshop, ideally located in a storage area on one of the canal's banks, allowed her to fully dedicate herself to her task. She was coding, and has been doing so for several hours straight, but she just kept at it tirelessly, completely forgetting the outside world.This actually summed up Thorium as a person pretty well; the focus she's capable of is amazing, but she disregards almost everything that she considers irrelevant to her work. One of Thorium's irrelevant things is socializing; she simply doesn't care, she's happy just having her childhood friends Uranium and Protactinium around. From there Uranium can handle all the useless talk while she concentrates on getting her hands dirty with code, code and more code. As for Protactinium, she's a shrinking violet who'd rather be either on her own or in Uranium and Thorium's company, so between the timid and the disinterested, Uranium has become something of a spokeswoman for these two socially hopeless persons. It's a good thing that Uranium is actually good at socializing; she and Thorium wouldn't have gotten that far otherwise, much to Thorium's annoyance to admit that social skills are relevant to research and engineering. After all, if they're known by quite a few companies and some military circles before even finishing engineering school, it was nearly all thanks to Uranium. Sure Thorium had a significant part in making Uranium's designs fully functional, but even fully functional things have to be presented to the right persons, and that's what Uranium did brilliantly.

Thorium and Uranium were now finishing engineering school, and were working on their last assignment. They only had to build an autonomous machine, but Uranium wanted to blow everybody out of the water and set her sights sky high on a human-like robot. Uranium was in charge of the hardware and Thorium, who at the time had no idea what she was letting herself in for, was responsible of the software. And so, after naming their creation Mjölnir, defeating Uranium's quite plain 'Element 61', Thorium set about writing the entire programming from scratch, and in some ways, she's glad that she didn't realize how big of a task it would turn out be. She walked down a long and difficult road and it's dubious that anybody other than Thorium would've persevered, but Thorium loved to overcome challenges. Working on this project gave her invaluable programming knowledge while she gained it the hard way, it made later developments easier to achieve. Meanwhile, for Uranium, things went completely the other way; it started out easily enough and then it became more and more complex. Uranium being Uranium, she eventually managed to solve all her problems, except for one that kept challenging her: spatial awareness. Uranium tested a lot of solutions; an 'eye' made of infra-red cells, optical cameras, a radar, a sonar...but none of these set-ups gave Uranium satisfaction. The sonar showed promise, but Uranium found it too unreliable to serve as a main perception system. The only solution that pleased Uranium was a laser, which yielded unmatched precision, but a single laser could only point to one spot. Nevertheless, Uranium seemed to follow that route and set about refining the idea, so maybe the latest hardware obstacle will be overcome shortly. 

Thorium was still absorbed with her programming when suddenly something grabbed her head and turned it. Her screen immediately disappeared from her vision, replaced by a slightly tanned face framed in platinum blond hair, which promptly yelled at her. 

"Earth to Thorium! Are you there?"

Thorium gaped for a bit, but managed to quickly catch up with the situation "U? What are you doing? When did you come back?"

"When did I come back?" said mockingly Uranium "a good ten minutes ago."

"Really? I didn't notice."

"Of course not, when you're deep in your code, your mind moves to some ethereal dimension."

"Don't praise me so much, I'll get embarrassed."

"You? Embarrassed? Now that's something I'd like to see, I'd frame it and attach it on the bonnet of my car."

"I'll throw you into the canal if you do!"

"Alright, Dr.Killjoy, what at you up to?" said Uranium while looking at the screen.

"Priority routines, or how the robot will sort things by order of importance."

"And what has top priority?"

"My orders, of course" said Thorium with a grin. 

"Heh, fair enough" Uranium smiled back at Thorium "so what's left to do on the code front?"

"Quite a lot, and that lot is all, in one way or another, connected to its ability to perceive its environment; I have some code ready for all sorts of behaviours, but without knowing in detail how it'll actually see, it's still rudimentary."

"Well, worry no more, I've got the solution!"

Thorium lifted an eyebrow "Really?"

"Yup, if you'll follow me." she said theatrically.

They made their way to the workshop's main area, where in the middle of countless mechanical parts, electronic circuitry and cables, there was a metallic humanoid shape. It had a very sleek appearance with polished outer panels, in various shades of blue and the style was retro futurist, with a raygun gothic vibe to it. It still looked like a work in progress, as evidenced by the various instances of exposed circuitry, but also because of the missing head. Uranium walked to a workbench next to it, where a small black storage box rested. She opened it and invited Thorium to take a look. What Thorium saw didn't really clue her much, but Uranium was standing there with stars in her eyes, so it must be serious business.

After a long beat, Thorium said "You must be waiting for me to ask what it is."

"Yup!"

"Alright, what it is?"

"This, Thorium, is a lidar, and it's going to be Mjölnir's eye."

"Lidar? Is it related to a radar or a sonar?"

"Yes, but a radar uses radio waves, and a sonar uses sound, this uses light, more specifically, lasers." Uranium looked incredibly proud of herself. 

"Didn’t you say that lasers are good but inconvenient?"

"Static lasers, yes, but a lidar is a laser that moves around, so it can map the environment. With this, we're in business!" announced Uranium proudly while dramatically closing the box. 

"Why not just use two optical cameras, you know, like humans?"

"Are you a human?"

"I...yes?"

"Of course you are, silly. Now, how do you evaluate distances?"

"I...um I don't know, instinctively?"

"Reflexively" corrected Uranium "You do it reflexively because you spent twenty years of trial and error to get a good grasp of your environment. But our robot has to be functional as soon as it's switched on, so it needs to immediately know how to interpret its environment."

Thorium pulled a 'not bad' face "Alright, now what?"

"Now you work."

"Excuse me?"

"I got the lidar, now that there's exploitable feedback data, you have to make Mjölnir interpret it."

Thorium grumbled, Uranium being right tended to annoy her "Right, and what about you?"

"I'll make the head, now that I know what'll go in it."

"In others words, you'll be twiddling your thumbs."

"Pretty much" said Uranium with a grin "now stop being so grumpy and let's go grab a bite."

"Only if you treat the poor code monkey to some delicious sushi."

"Of course I will!" said Uranium while patting Thorium's back, and leading her outside.

They got in Uranium's car and set off to buy takeout sushi and eat them outside. They settled on a bench in one of the city's many parks, and ate while talking about their project, its state and what was left to do. As the conversation progressed, Thorium felt that Uranium's stare was increasingly inquisitive and she was talking less. That made Thorium uncomfortable, as she knew that when Uranium starts doing that, it's because she has something set in her mind, and that something is always at Thorium's expense. Eventually, Uranium became completely silent so Thorium stopped talking as well, and an awkward silence followed, with Uranium's stare becoming all the more soul-piercing. Thorium wanted to play the silence card, but she's not that patient, and and Uranium - that devil - knew it.

"Alright, alright, let's get this over with, what do you want?"

"The full story."

"About what?" deep down, Thorium knew there was no use in denying it, but she didn't want to give Uranium the satisfaction of spilling her beans just now.

"You know full well _what_ , I've known you for years, Thorium, and I've known Protactinium for much longer than that. I've been noticing something fishy for months now, perhaps before you realized it yourself, even. And now you think you'll get away with not telling me all the juicy details? Give up already." Uranium had that exasperating smug smile.

"What do you think you know about me and Protactinium, anyway?"

"Almost everything, except what you two do in bed."

"Oh come on that was just a one-time th-" Thorium suddenly realized what she was saying and sure enough Uranium's sported a victorious smile.

"So...just a one-time thing, huh?"

Thorium slumped, defeated "Go on, do your worst"

"Let's see...Well, first, since when did you feel something more than friendship?"

"I don't know...It was very progressive, I guess. With time we grew closer and closer until I realized that I kind of wanted her."

"'Kind of'?"

"Yeah, 'kind of'...I'm not sure about it even today; we spent so much time as friends that it's hard to tell where the friendship ends and when romance begins."

"But, by your own admission, you two...did things, right?" 

Thorium redden slightly "Yes, but...it didn't clarify anything, I can't even decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing; I'm not madly in love with her, but I definitely consider her as someone very special for me."

Uranium was thoughtful for a bit "Why did you keep it a secret from me?"

Thorium felt a big pang of guilt, one that was always lingering here, but wasn't really noticeable until Uranium exposed her "I...I don't have an explanation."

"I don't want an explanation, this is not a trial Thorium, I just want to know how you feel about this."

"I know U, I'm just so far out of my comfort zone, I'm not used to this kind of talk."

"Jeez Thorium, with how fast technology advances, I bet that I'll be alive to build a robot that'll be more emotional than you!"

"Heh that's a pretty low bar you're setting here. To answer your question, I don't really know...I guess I was so used to having you two as equal friends, that when I began to see Protactinium as more than 'one of my two best friends', I wanted to keep things between us as they always were."

"But Thorium, how's the fact that you're going out with Protactinium would've change things between us?"

"I don't know, I just thought...I was afraid that romantic drama might get in the way of our friendship, so...I held on to a status quo that involved not telling you...I'm sorry."

"Heh, it's alright Thorium, I'm just surprised you thought there would be drama at all."

"What, you expected me to have a realistic understanding of relationships? You know me better, U."

Uranium chuckled "Fair enough, so now what?"

"Now...good question, we haven't seen each other much since then; we were both busy, but I'm conflicted about keeping it up."

"You don't want to live with her? "

"Again, I don't know! Can't some things just be done as friends? Must we be in a relationship? What does a relationship even mean? I don't know, U, I'm lost, I don't even understand myself fully."

"Take it easy, girl." Uranium patted Thorium's back for a bit, before adding "What does Protactinium think about that?"

"Well, I'm not sure of that either; you know how she's with social stuff."

"I do, I can't barely conceive it, but she might be even more clueless than you at love. She's also timid rather than utterly uninterested."

"Pretty much, I mean we didn't even see each other much lately, since I was busy, -so..."

Uranium facepalmed softly "The girl who can't show and the girl who can't see, that'll go smoothly..."

Thorium rolled her eyes "Yeah, be mean and all that, that'll help...For now, I decided to focus on our project."

"That's a bit heartless."

"Maybe, but I'll have time to think afterwards."

"Let's hope so, romance rarely go as planned."

* * *

A month later, things were going well; Uranium was making good progress with Mjölnir's head, and Thorium was deep into writing the code that would accommodate Uranium's lidar. Uranium was still thinking about Thorium and Protactinium, and she felt weird about it. It wasn't jealousy, as Uranium never thought of having that kind of relationship with either Thorium or Protactinium; it was just seeing their triangular relationship changing and gaining a new dynamic, a dynamic that left her somewhat watching from the side lines. Sure she was happy for them, but nevertheless felt a bit melancholic about it; hanging out as a group would not be the same again. That being said, their relationship wasn't off to a smooth start, if Thorium was to be believed...but Thorium is Thorium; the fact that such an ice queen made it this far was already significant on its own. Thorium was a real wildcard here; she could go either way; she looked like she deeply cares about Protactinium, but at the same time she devoted herself to research, combining the two was going to be tricky. As for Protactinium, Uranium guessed that her position was much more straightforward, but then again, Protactinium is a shrinking violet, and shrinking violets are unpredictable under pressure. And pressure there will be, especially in a relationship with Thorium, Uranium would need to watch these two, for they-

Her train of thought got interrupted by her phone ringing, and speak of the devil, it was Protactinium. The conversation was quick; Protactinium wanted to meet her for a chat. That was significant in itself; Protactinium doesn't ask people for a 'chat' if she has nothing important to say, so it's obviously going to be about her and Thorium. Uranium immediately packed it up, and went to Protactinium's place, no use in wasting time.

A bit later, she arrived at Protactinium's studio flat, and what she saw didn't really alleviate her worries; the place was a mess, and Protactinium was still in her underwear, with only a tank top on. Her silvery hair was loosely tied in a ponytail, and her face was riddled with worry. _That's not promising_ thought Uranium, while greeting her friend and sitting next to her on the opened sofa bed. Protactinium weakly returned her greetings and proceeded to expose the situation

"Uranium, I...well first I have to tell you something, you see, I really like you and Thorium very much. You know that I'm really shy, but you girls have always supported me, and I can never thank you enough for that."

"Please Prota, you don't need to, that's what friends are for."

Protactinium smiled at her "Thanks Uranium, I know I can always count on you, you're the friend I can always count on." she paused, Uranium silently waited for her to continue "However, things have changed between me and Thorium, I..."

Protactinium stopped, unsure of how to continue. Uranium hesitated between letting her say it, or telling her that she knows. She eventually settled for a more nuanced approach.

"You started to have romantic feelings to Thorium, right?"

Protactinium didn't look surprised; she just nodded "Yeah, I figured you knew."

"I started to suspect it." said Uranium, lying by omission.

"Well, I started seeing her differently for quite some time, and I noticed she looked at me differently as well, but we kept circling around each other until..." Protactinium took some time to find her words "until a month ago, she was here, and the mood was good, and we...we did it."

Uranium gave a comprehensive nod, allowing Protactinium to continue "She was so sweet that time, but afterwards, we barely spoke, she got busy with work."

"I guess this would happen, Thorium is a bit particular when it comes to this sort of thing."

"Yeah, but I don't really mind, I know how she can be, that's not the problem." Uranium stayed silent, Protactinium took a long breath and went for it:

"I'm pregnant."

Uranium froze solid, eyes wide open. That wasn't what she wanted to hear; she would've been fine with some relationship drama, but that's on another level altogether. Her mind panicked at how tangled the situation had suddenly become, and kind of lost her ability to think.

"P-pregnant? You sure?"

"Yes, I didn't have my period this month, so I went to see a doctor and..."

"But...you sure it's Thorium?"

Protactinium gave her a look "Of course, it's Thorium! What, did you think I was visited by the spirit of Primae materia?"

Uranium suddenly realized how stupid she sounded "Ah, uh, no, sorry, I-" her mind was racing, an unwanted pregnancy was bad enough, but involving Thorium of all people? That was properly bad. Her thinking was interrupted by Protactinium, who had very concerned eyes and a tearful voice.

"Uranium, what do I do?"

Uranium didn't answer, but stood up and began nervously pacing around in the room. She would've liked to call it 'emergency thinking time' but really, it was just her emotions engaged in a fistfight against each other. After a few minutes, she turned to Protactinium.

"You...you should tell Thorium." Protactinium winced and Uranium didn't miss it "I know it's an ordeal in itself, Prota, but it's necessary, you won't be able to hide it from her anyway."

A beat passed, Protactinium was on the verge of crying, and her voice was distorted by emotion "But what if she...what if..."

Uranium keeled down and took her in her arms, patting her back. Protactinium let her tears roll silently, with an occasional sniffle. Uranium let her quietly cry on her shoulder, while squeezing her reassuringly. When she began to calm down, Uranium pulled back "Don't worry Prota, I will always be here for you. No matter what happens, don't forget that you'll never be alone."

Protactinium nodded slowly, and leant on Uranium. Uranium gave her a very, very long hug, while whispering her reassuring words. This was a crucial moment, and her friend needed her now more than ever, the question now was her _other_ friend, and on that matter, worry was justified.

* * *

Only a few hours have passed, but Uranium couldn't sit still. Protactinium was quite collected when she left her, but she still had to break it to Thorium and that alone could go wrong in a lot of ways. What Uranium feared most of all was the fact that Thorium was already quite stressed from programming non-stop for months...Having a non-planned child on top of it is not the right way to alleviate it. Still there was not much to do for now but wait for her. Once she figures out Thorium's mood, she'll decide what to do. It was only a few minutes later that Thorium arrived at the workshop, and as expected, she didn't look in the best of moods. Her walk was noticeably stiffer and quicker than usual and she stormed past Uranium without saying a word. Once she disappeared in her study, Uranium exhaled heavily, suddenly aware that she had been holding her breath all along. Some time passed, until typing noises interrupted the deathly silence of the workshop; Thorium must've chosen to bury herself in her work in order to cope. Uranium eventually decided to go for it, and after taking a deep breath, stepped into the study. She silently walked towards the desk, and then, stayed there for a bit, waiting for an opportunity. It turned out she didn't need to, as Thorium was the one to speak first. 

"Since when did you know?" said Thorium, her voice was slightly harsher than usual. 

"Just a few hours earlier than you."

"What did she say?"

"Are you really asking me?"

"No, I mean, did she ask for advice?"

"Somewhat, the usual 'what to do?'"

"What did you say?"

"I said she needed to tell you as soon as possible."

"I see." Thorium seemed to slightly ease up. One of the things that she hated was being the only one not knowing, fortunately, Uranium's answer seemed to satisfy her.

"What did you say to her?" asked Uranium.

"Nothing."

"What, you just left?"

Thorium nodded, Uranium sighed, that's not what she wanted to hear.

"Did you think about it, or is it too early?"

"I'm not going to bother."

Uranium was taken aback "What?"

"I'm not going to bother." repeated Thorium.

"But...what do you mean by that?"

"That I won't give a shit."

Uranium was quite shocked, she expected many things, but outright dismissing wasn't one of them, and she didn't like it. Being upset was understandable, but this display of childlike behaviour was rapidly approaching unacceptable territory.

"You won't give a shit? You mean, you'll leave Protactinium on her own? With a child?

"Tch! Who cares?" Thorium's voice got gradually nastier, which only made Uranium's annoyance grow bigger and bigger.

"Well I care, and you should to!"

"Then if you care why don't YOU go and solve everything, Ms.Perfect!"

"How could you? I'm trying to help you, I'm your friend..."

"Well if you're my friend, why don't you just fuck off and leave me alone!" 

Shots were fired, and Uranium was now transitioning from annoyance to full-on anger.

"Don't you tell me to 'fuck off' to try and get out of this, smartass."

Thorium looked at her with nasty eyes "And what are you going to do, bitch? Why do you even get to boss me around? I don't care about your shit opinion!"

"Because you're being a fucking child, if you tried to act like an adult, maybe I wouldn't need to call you on your bullshit!"

"Don't patronise me, bitch, you don't know how it feels to suddenly receive a child out of nowhere, all because of some bitch who-"

_slap_

Uranium's hand had moved on her own, and left a big red mark on Thorium's face.

"DON'T YOU CALL PROTACTINIUM A 'BITCH', YOU CUNT!" Uranium was feeling tears of anger going up her eyes "She's my friend, I care for her, and I care for her child, and I will defend her from the piece of shit that managed to knock her up only to run away from responsibility like a fucking coward!"

Thorium stayed silent, while Uranium's verbal abuse kept on "You think you can claim pure innocence? Bullshit! You know full well what can happen during sex, and by the looks of it, you did nothing to prevent it. You just had your good time and now you come and spout nonsense to my face about some bullshit trickery, do you think Protactinium would do that? If you don't have the ovaries to take responsibility, be at least fucking upfront about it, and admit you're just a runaway bitch, don't try to blame it on the real victim there, the one who will be alone with a child that got fucked over by its coward of a parent." 

Uranium stopped, out of breath. Thorium was looking away; she hadn't move her head since Uranium had slapped her. Eventually, she turned to face her screen and resumed typing like nothing happened. Exasperated, Uranium grabbed her by the hair and forced her eyes in hers. Thorium gave her the blankest of looks; her mind had retreated into the safety of the skull, away from Uranium's burning fury. In a frustrated move, Uranium violently threw Thorium on the floor, where she stayed silently as Uranium stormed out of the study.

It took several minutes of keeping her head under cold water for Uranium to calm down. It had been a long time since she had blow out like that. Over the years she got a much better grasp at keeping her cool, but if someone pushes the wrong buttons - and Thorium managed to push two big ones: running away from responsibility and hurting Protactinium - she's guaranteed to have a meltdown. Uranium dried up, and took a look at herself in the mirror. She sighed heavily; this was really bad, and it was guaranteed to strain her relationship with Thorium. Actually she didn't really care about that at the moment, because the biggest stake here was Protactinium. Uranium grabbed her phone and called her friend.

"Uranium?" Protactinium's voice was weak and it was obvious that she had just cried.

"Hey Prota, how are you holding up?"

"Not brilliantly, to be honest, I tried telling it to Thorium but she just..."

"I know, I know, listen Prota, I know things are harsh right now, but I need you to be strong, okay?"

"I...don't know, Ura, I don't know anymore..."

"I'll talk to doctors I know, so you'll be in good care during your term, and I'll be here as well; should you need something, anything, just call me, okay?"

"...okay, Uranium, thank you. And Thorium?"

"Thorium's gotta Thorium, you know her. At this point, she's the only one who can decide about not being a jackass, but for now it doesn't look like it's in her plans."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, Prota, I'll watch over you, you're my dear friend, and I'll never leave you."

"Thank you Ura" Protactinium was nearly tearing up with emotion "Thank you, I don't know what I'd do alone."

"You'll never be alone, Prota, never forget that."

* * *

The next few months passed in a blur; the fallout between Uranium and Thorium was palpable, but they collaborated enough to finish Mjölnir. Thorium devoted herself entirely to the task; she literally lived in her study, cycling between programming and sleeping on a mattress. All of her meals were delivery noodles and her sleeping cycle got completely upended. Uranium watched that with some empathy, but refused to intervene, and since her work on Mjölnir was essentially finished, she spent most of her time looking after Protactinium. Protactinium managed to focus herself on the future birth of her child, and carried on with Uranium's help. In truth, the three of them lived these months in a daze and although Uranium and Protactinium have actually lived compared to Thorium, the uncertainty of the future was a constant cause of worry for everyone. Even Mjölnir's presentation was a non-event as far as Uranium and Thorium were concerned; they put on their act brilliantly and completely blew the competition, but for them, it just came and went.

With the big assignment completed, Uranium killed time mainly by absently tinkering with Mjölnir. One day though the tinkering became too mind-numbing and she decided to go for a walk. As she paced around the workshop, her attention was drawn by Thorium’s voice coming from the study, seemingly on the phone. Uranium waited until the end of the call, then went in the study, where she found Thorium, slumped on her chair with her head in her hands. 

“It was Protactinium, right?” 

After a bit, Thorium answered, not looking at her “Yes, her water broke, she’s going to the hospital.” 

“Does she need a ride?” 

“No, Zirconium sent an ambulance.” 

“Alright.” 

There was a long and uneasy silence, until Uranium decided to break it. 

“Are you really going to keep that up? Is that how you deal with your life?” 

Thorium finally turned to look at Uranium, her face was quite miserable “What I am supposed to do?” 

“You’re supposed to act like a grown woman and face the situation.” 

“Face how? You have it easy; you’re not the one who’ll become a mother in the next few hours.” 

“Do you really hate children so much?” 

“No, it’s just…” Thorium looked away and sighed heavily “I’m just not fit for being a parent.” 

“How could you know that? Nobody becomes a parent overnight, it’s something that you learn as your child grows, how can you single-handedly decide that you’re rubbish at it?” 

“Because I'm not actually interested in parenting, I'm interested in science and technology; and parenting would take time away from that. You know me, U, you know that I never planned to have a child…hell I never even planned to have a girlfriend in the first place. Sure I love Prota, but I never wanted that development, and now I’m only dreading the future; I’ll never hate my child, but I’ll be a useless mother because I can’t bring myself to just stop what I want to do.” 

After a beat, Uranium spoke “Why are you telling this to me? You should go say that to Prota.” 

“I can’t bring myself to face her.” 

“But _I_ can make you to face her.” Uranium said with a slightly menacing tone. 

“You wouldn’t…”

“I wouldn’t? You’re sure? You’re spilling your beans in front of me while your girlfriend – who's also my childhood friend, don’t you forget that - is in labour, and you expect me to just watch it passively?” 

Uranium said that while leaning menacingly towards Thorium who recoiled reflexively. Uranium was easy going, but when she became serious, she was properly terrifying. 

"Uranium, please..."

“‘Please’ what? This doesn’t just involve you, there’s Prota and your child at stake here, and you just stay here talking to me instead.” 

”But I’m lost, I don’t know what to do…” Thorium’s voiced sounded on the verge of a breakdown. 

Uranium put a hand on her shoulder “Then go see you girlfriend and sort things out together, that’s how life work; you decide about the future with people who share your future.”

Thorium stayed silent for some time, but eventually nodded. Uranium led her to her car and they drove off to the hospital. The trip was silent, but the awkwardness was mainly gone, and Uranium began to hope that the bumpy road would finally end.

The next few hours were very busy as Protactinium gave birth, without complications, to a little girl. Thorium could participate, and even if she didn't show it in front of Uranium, she was glad that Uranium pushed her. Sometimes (most of the time actually, but Thorium would never admit it) Thorium's reluctance gets the better of her and she ends up regretting it, but thankfully in this crucial moment, her friend was there for her. As per Protactinium's request, Thorium got to choose the name for her daughter, so as a nod to her carrying mother, she named the new-born Actinium. Actinium had Thorium's fiery hair and Protactinium's silvery eyes, she also had quite the temper; she might've been only a few minutes old, but she was already wanting to see the world. Only Protactinium managed to calm her down and put her to sleep. 

Later in the evening, Protactinium was in her hospital room with Thorium and Uranium. Uranium announced she would be leaving them alone to sort things out, but she'll stay around until Thorium was ready to head back. After two hours, Thorium went to find her, and asked her to keep Protactinium company while she went to went to buy drinks. As Uranium stepped in the room, she noticed that Protactinium looked much more relaxed, which was a good sign. 

"Thanks again, Uranium."

"Come on Prota, you don't need to thank me constantly."

"You deserve all of my thanks, without you I might never have been able to see Thorium again and Actinium might have never know her."

"Well I'm happy it hadn't come to this, what did you two decide?"

"Well, it's a bit complicated; Thorium really wants the liberty to do what she wants, and to be honest, I'm happy to let her."

"Really?"

"Yes, Thorium is wild and untamed, you know that even more than I. I don't want to keep her in a cage, and even if I did, that could only end badly for everyone involved."

"Fair enough, so what did you decide about Actinium?"

"I'll take her custody, Thorium said she'll support me financially and, if she can, she'll be physically present as well."

"And what about you?"

"I'll continue studying, I'm still pursing my dream."

"Oceanographer, right? Sounds pretty rad."

"Yeah, It's going to be extra tough with Actinium in the equation, but that's what I really want to do."

Uranium approached her and held her hand reassuringly "We'll always be here for you, Prota, and if you need me to take care of Actinium, you only have to ask, okay?"

Protactinium smiled warmly "Thank you Uranium, I knew you'd say that, but I'm really happy to hear it from you." 

"I want everything to go well for you, Thorium and Actinium."

"For you as well, Uranium, we might not be related by blood, but I really want you to be part of the family, will you stay by our side?"

"Of course I will, after all you're already like my little sister, I will always take good care of you." said Uranium while leaning to hug Protactinium.

Their embrace lasted until Thorium's return, and the three of them started chatting. It had been a while since they've done that, going back to even before Protactinium's pregnancy and the resulting drama. Adult life has had a big hold on their time together, but this evening, they got to hang out like old times. Of course the situation was now different; but their closeness was still strong, it was just labelled 'family' rather than 'friends group'. In the end though, labels weren't really important; what was important was how they cared and would support each other.

There had been a storm, but everybody was still afloat, and now the horizon looked sunny. They were young, full of talent, and ready to take life head-on, preferably while pushing the limits of technology in the process.

**Author's Note:**

> Continuity note, Mjölnir's body will later become Promethium's physical body. It's also the blueprint that Mendelevium looked at in the end of Lifesaver.


End file.
